The Power of Imagery for Music Learning

"Imagery is a powerful communicative tool that has been utilized for millennia to express humanity’s deepest desires, ideas, and emotions. It is a subject that is both transparent in its ability to improve human perception and performance, and yet, mysterious in its unpredictable influence on people’s expressions and perceptions that are dependent on the context and medium in which people employ to express themselves. I encourage educators and performers to utilize imagery, in conjunction with technical instruction, for teaching aspiring performing artists strategies to remediate obstacles that impinge their learning, to enhance their musical expressivity, and to enrich their quality of life. Imagination is the root for which expression, creativity, and innovation spawn from. Let us never negate the power of imagery in educational contexts, for cultivating students’ ability to engage the imagination can liberate them to becoming expressive communicators of thought, especially through music." José Valentino Ruiz, PhD, excerpt from dissertation

The Effects of Technical and Imagery-Based Instruction on Aspiring Performing Artists' Acquisition of Learning Newly Composed Pieces and Improvisation and on Listeners' Perceived Expressivity.